The Last Customer

by Daniel Coughlin

  Gardner strutted forward. The wooden planks beneath his feet wobbled. Gardner put all of his weight into each step. Winny stood in front of Gardner and grabbed his shoulder. Winny pushed forward. Gardner pushed back. Winny stumbled to the side and Gardner lunged with staggering tenacity. Winny was forced to let up. He couldn’t stop him.

  Cherri stepped forward and called out to Gardner. It was her last attempt. “If you leave us, we’re done. That thing will kill us. We don’t know how to fight it. We need you.”

  Gardner turned to Cherri. The madness in his eyes was present, but diluted. He looked like he was going to scream. He settled. It was as if the gentle voice of a woman was enough. His eyes drooped and he stopped fighting.

  “You will fight him. I’ve seen it in my vision.” Gardner looked to Winny then Cherri. “…and you will walk out of this house, victorious. I can’t say the same for myself. I don’t know if I want to. My fate has been written. I accept my destiny. I’ll do what I can and I hope that God will keep me.”

  “That doesn’t have to be true. You can use your anger to fight. You can seek your vengeance. You can help us. We can all leave here together. We’ll mourn Donna when we can,” Cherri pleaded. Tears ran from her eyes, in quick currents.

  Gardner pondered what she’d said. Cherri had gotten to him. It made sense. Winny loosened up for just a moment.

  Cherri and Winny lowered their guard. It was too late.

  Gardner jumped down the hatch and into the hallway.

  5

  Gardner scurried down the hatch. Fury fused into every cell of his body. Rage possessed his thoughts and his soul. It drove him. For the first time in his life, he was angry with God, the God that had tasked him with so much.

  He spent so many years of his life serving him.

  All he wanted was for his life to be simple and enjoyable. After fighting off so much evil, he felt entitled to it. It was his right. But now, his sweet Donna was taken from him. His reason for living was gone. All of his focus funneled into fighting Sammael. He didn’t care if he were to be killed. He needed to strike the demon. Afterward, if he were to be killed, at least the nightmare would be over. This thought suddenly snapped his sanity back. The well-being of Winny, Garth and Cherri weighed in on his mind, but he didn’t know if it was enough to stop him.

  Normally a logical man, even when it came to matters of the supernatural, Gardner controlled his anger. But now, his rage hit its boiling point. Gardner was going to explode. Even the power of prayer wouldn’t stop him.

  In the hallway, he gained his footing. The demon Sammael stood before him. His fists were clenched. Snakes slithered across and around him. They ran between his legs, around his neck and waved up his chest. He was covered in the scaly creatures. They hissed and snapped at Gardner.

  This was the demon. The demon he’d fought all those years ago—and had beaten. Gardner’s rage was going destroy him. He didn’t care. He lunged forward as the snakes sprang at him.

  Tearing down the hall, as though he’d be able to tackle Sammael to the ground, Gardner’s logic sunk-in. If he were to go through with this—let the anger and insanity of what had happened get the best of him—he would not only lose and be defeated, but he would fail the test. That’s what this was—a test. If he failed, his great works would be disregarded. He’d be sent to a place where Sammael would laugh and torment him, forever. But in this moment, he disregarded the idea. His humanity got the best of him.

  He didn’t care.

  As Gardner slammed his body into Sammael’s torso and tackled him to the ground, his fury escalated, peaked and then dissipated. The laughter on Sammael’s face was overwhelming. The anger returned. It seemed like the child of his mind was turning the light switch of anger on and then off, over and over again. The switch released logic and anger, logic and anger. Sammael watched Gardner’s emotions flash back and forth across his face.

  Gardner saw how delighted the demon had become.

  Gardner hoped for an answer, but there were no visions. There was only simple emotion and Gardner couldn’t escape it. When he looked across the hallway and saw his wife’s corpse lying in a pool of blood, his anger further reddened. It snatched the sanity from his weary mind. He screamed, “You vile piece of filth!”

  And in that moment, he didn’t know if he was speaking to the demon or to his God.

  6

  Winny stood with Cherri in the attic. They were lost, anxious and didn’t know what to do. Standing defensively, Cherri knew that one of them or both of them would have to jump down and fight. Raising a finger, Winny snapped his attention toward Cherri.

  “I think I can help him,” Winny said.

  Cherri watched Winny say this, but she didn’t believe it. What she knew about Gardner was that he was a man that could fight and defeat something like a demon. Winny was a simple man. He couldn’t defeat Sammael. Not even with an army of ten thousand. He just wasn’t capable.

  “When I was outside, with Garth…well…not Garth, but that thing, I begged for it to let my brother go. For a moment, Garth came back. It worked.”

  “You don’t know that it was Garth—not for sure. It was probably the demon playing his tricks on you, making you believe that it was Garth when it wasn’t. He was lowering your guard, trying to make you believe that you could make a difference when you couldn’t.”

  Cherri suddenly realized what she’d done. She’d stripped away Winny’s hope. For a moment that was all he had. Without hope they might as well jump down into the hallway and give up. Let the demon destroy them. When Winny lowered his head to look at Cherri, her stomach felt like it was filled with ice. But Winny turned to her and said, “Maybe you’ve given up, but I haven’t. You can either help me or you can stay here and hope for the best. Either way, I’m going to try.”

  Before Cherri had a chance to retort, Winny jumped down the hatch, into the hallway.

  Cherri’s nerves shot into high gear. She didn’t know what to do. She wanted to help Winny. Even if she failed, at least it would be a valiant effort, even if the outcome was death. And maybe that would be fine. If she fought, then maybe she would die—quickly, with no pain.

  Cherri stepped forward. She looked downward. She heard the shouts and screams of Gardner and Winny, and above their cries, she heard the demon laughing.

  For the first time, in a long time, she closed her eyes and began to pray. She asked for guidance. She’d never gone to church a day in her life. She was vaguely aware of religion at all. She didn’t know what she was doing when she bowed her head. She asked God to help her—to help them.

  With shaky legs, Cherri stood and moved toward the hatch. Slowly, she stepped down into the madness that awaited her.

  7

  Sammael clamped his hand around Gardner’s throat, tight. His elongated fingers dug into the skin on the back of his neck, palm smothering his Adam’s apple. Gardner’s feet dangled, scissor kicking in the air. His toes barely scraped the floor. They danced, four inches off the floor. Winny dropped, slinked back, and curled in a ball behind them.

  Cherri twisted in order to see Donna. She was lying in a slippery pool of blood that formed above her head like a vile halo. Sadness consumed Cherri.

  Quick as her sadness set, it was gone. It was replaced with fear. Sammael was watching Cherri and smiling. He’d taken the boyish face of Garth and turned it into a sinister grin, reflecting the death and destruction that he sought. Cherri was sick of being tormented by this vile thing, tired of being bullied. She was tired of feeling afraid. She was fed up with being exhausted. Most of all, she was sick of the unknown. Even more, she was sick of the demon, her demon. Sammael could see this. It was written upon her face. The demon received great pleasure in destroying Gardner, but still, he couldn’t help but refocus his attention to Cherri, as though he couldn’t turn away from the opportunity to destroy something new—fresh meat. Gardner wasn’t enough. The demon savored the consumption of everything good. His appetite was insatiable and Cherr
i was mocking him; because her fear of him was diluted. The fear she should have felt was replaced with annoyance. Her limit had been reached.

  Sammael’s maniacal grin fell into an eager, fearfully intense stare. He tilted his head in Gardner’s direction, eyes darting forward, intently. The demon was tormented. It couldn’t choose—it’s appetite for flesh was selfish. The demon wanted everything, to kill all.

  He must be thinking— destroy what he had or go for the girl?

  A scaly snake shot from Sammael’s mouth, it coiled around Gardner’s neck and, even though it was dark, Cherri could see that Gardner was gasping for air. His eyes ballooned and bulged. His skin flushed crimson and then purple.

  The floorboards creaked. Dust jumped. Gardner hit the hallway floor like a sack of dirt. Sammael had squeezed the wind out from him, causing him to pass out—he’d choked consciousness from him.

  Cherri didn’t know what came next.

  Sammael locked eyes with Cherri. With each breath he took he seemed to enlarge. Looming larger again as he stepped toward her. Cherri didn’t budge. She couldn’t. The thought of death and dying swirled erratically through her spinning head. Flashes of her childhood—all of the worst things she’d done in her life and all of the good she’d done accumulated in her mind like cumulus clouds. It seemed, for the moment, that Sammael didn’t matter. The only point that mattered was doing the right thing—now, when it counted. It didn’t matter if she died in the process, she would be redeemed. She didn’t back down. She stood tall. Her stance was solid as the beast hovered near her. She smelled its foul breath. Its pungent odor was remnant of burned and rotting flesh.

  “You can kill me, but you won’t defeat me. So get on with it!”

  The maniacal smile illuminated Sammael’s face as though he’d never enjoyed a more extravagant invitation. His face was seized with sinister glee.

  8

  Sharp pins and needles struck every molecule of Winny’s being as his consciousness returned. His legs, arms, body and mind were famished and stung horribly. For a quick moment, he didn’t know if he could rise. His body was giving up. Pain coursed his torso—every joint, muscle and bone ached. The fight had taken its toll on him. He was beaten. He didn’t know if he could handle any more strain. Shaking his head, facing forward, he looked to Cherri as she faced-off with the demon, a stubbornly fierce aura radiated from her. It made the demon cringe.

  The surge of energy that flowed through Winny when he realized that Cherri wasn’t scared inspired him to flex into a straight plank and then stand. He hobbled toward her.

  Sammael didn’t budge as Winny stumbled forward. A clicking sound tapped through the air. Winny watched the slithering thing shoot from Sammael’s mouth. Its jaws snapped while it rounded the demons lips and shot backward. The look upon Cherri’s angered face seemed to be screaming— grab that stupid thing and twist it till he chokes!

  And as if synchronicity caught step with Winny’s thoughts, he grabbed the slithery snake and held it tight in his grip. He pulled the fibered serpent taut and tried to rip it in two. Sammael stumbled backward. In the moment that it took for Sammael to spin around, Winny saw the fear of falling burn across Sammael’s face. Mass confusion seized him as if he couldn’t fathom being beaten by these people.

  Then, Winny saw his brother return to his rightful body. Garth was back—in his own skin—where he belonged. It was miraculous. Winny had never felt a more vivacious sense of relief; never in his life.

  Winny stretched the snake and yanked it hard. He was sure that he’d ripped it from the demon’s mouth. He hoped that he wasn’t hurting Garth in the process. It hadn’t ripped free, but it wanted to. Garth was rejecting the snake, trying to spit it out, biting on it. Winny could feel the snake tearing when he shifted his hand and looped it. It was uprooting like a tree in a tornado.

  “Let him go, you puke!” Winny screamed as the snake unhooked from Garth’s mouth and shot forward, sliding through his hand and sending Winny to the floor. He let go of the snake.

  Winny was utterly amazed by what had taken place. Determined, he quickly jumped to his feet. He’d hurt the demon. A surge of confidence ran through him. The beast that stood dominant throughout the night was being defeated. It was being reduced to a slim, muscle-like snake that slithered across the floor toward Gardner. It was pathetic looking.

  Gardner stirred as the snake made its way toward him.

  9

  Garth was in a dark place. Screams rang out from every corner, but he couldn’t see anyone or anything. The foul odor surrounding him kept him nauseated. The thin layer of skin shrink-wrapping him to the wall felt like acid on his flesh. He was being held captive in a dark dungeon. Visibility was limited. His blood felt oily and it burned. The skin restraints holding him to the wall felt loose and thin. The texture was deceiving; as hard as he’d been trying to tear through it, the elasticity was too strong. It only stretched when he attempted to tear at it. He’d begun to give up hope, fast. He didn’t know how long he could stand being held here. But then, a feeling came to him, a welcomed sensation. It was as if someone had torn through his binds from the opposite side. It was Winny. He knew it. He could sense his brother. And right then, Garth couldn’t think of anyone that he’d rather see than his brother. He wanted to see him badly. He began gritting his teeth as he did when excited. For another moment, it felt like the indestructible restraints—binding him to this awful place—had been disabled. There were a few moments, earlier, when he’d gone from this dark place and wound up back in his own body. The last time he’d awoken he’d been sitting on top of a garage looking down at Winny. It was like coming out of a blackout. And in that moment, he felt the same freedoms then that he was feeling now. He wanted to break apart from this hellish prison. Suddenly, he felt his brother’s anger. It sucked him back into the only world that made sense, the world of the living. Garth was punching through his restraints. He could see the layered skin of restraint splitting roughly as if being slashed with a saw. Wet, jagged pieces fell to the murky floor.

  And then he was free, released from this place.

  Sobering and quick, Garth stood. He didn’t recognize where he was, but there was a familiarity about it. None of that mattered because Winny stood a few feet from him. He looked scared, relieved, and furious all at once. The red haired girl was there too. He didn’t mind. It was even a relief to see her. His eyes focused on his brother. He fought to contain the smile. Reality struck. They were still in danger. There was something very wrong happening.

  Donna Gardner was lying on the wood floor. A pool of blood surrounded her. It soaked into her sun bleached hair making it appear black. Father Gardner crawled in Donna’s direction. His eyes were raw and fiery. His fury was unavoidable as he reached out to touch his wife. And then, the slithering thing caught Garth’s attention and he watched as it darted toward Gardner, wiggling fast in a smooth S-shape. Garth jumped forward, slamming his boot down hard on the snake. The snake screamed as Garth’s boot crushed the middle of it. The head and tail leapt in both directions then settled. Lime green fluid ejected from its mouth, oozing yellow foam followed.

  Leaning down, Garth tried to grab the slippery serpent, but it slipped through his fingers and slid across Gardner and underneath Donna.

  10

  Scratching, digging, and clawing at the floor, Gardner tried to grab the snake. It was threatening to touch Donna. Gardner wouldn’t allow the vileness of Sammael touch his sweet Donna, never. Sammael was able to kill her, but Gardner wouldn’t allow the demon to possess her. Or desecrate her body in any way. On the brink of madness, Gardner stood above Donna, his eyes frantically searching for the slithering demon. It was moving slow. It had a stammer to its wiggle—the result of Garth stomping on it.

  Wait.

  How and why had Garth done that?

  Gardner’s head spun toward Garth. Just seconds ago, Sammael had been wearing Garth’s body as his black mask. Gardner half expected Garth’s boot to slam down on his
face; as it had the snake. But then, he caught Garth’s eyes and saw the life living within them. The demon had been expelled from Garth. Gardner didn’t think that it could be done. He’d written Garth off for dead. Sammael was death to most of his hosts. For a moment, he forgot about Donna. He was ecstatic about this miracle, this strength. Winny was right when he said that his brother wasn’t doomed. Most victims of unholy occupancy died during the period of possession. Gardner had talked with many surviving victims—of possession—and they’d all told a similar tale. That they’d awoken in a dark place. It was black and everything was foul. Gardner imagined the place as some kind of hellish lobby, where souls were imprisoned until the body died or was cleansed. It was a twisted sort of Limbo.

  Logic crashed hard. Images of Donna drifted in. Gardner’s last thoughts were of quitting. Donna was gone and he wanted to die. He wanted Sammael to take him. But now, even as sadness and madness melded together, the logic of what needed to happen started to set in. He needed to be strong for Garth, Winny, and Cherri, not to mention Donna. She would be tormented by the thought of him giving-in to the demon. He couldn’t fathom disappointing her.

  Together, Gardner, Winny, Garth and Cherri could win this battle. No matter how devastated Gardner was over what had happened to Donna—he needed to be strong for these kids. He’d held off from this fight for too long. He needed to step to the challenge presented before him.